The Pitter Patter of Little Feet
by The Amazing Miss M
Summary: With his last breath Voldemort laid a curse on the Wizarding World.


Title: The Pitter Patter of Little Feet  
Author: Along Came the Spider  
Summery: With his last breath Voldemort laid a curse on the Wizarding World.

Part One:

Oliver sighed as his eyes adjusted to the inside St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. Over the past six years he'd spent far too much time in this building. He approached the receptionist and waited for his turn at the counter.

"Here you go sir," the receptionist told the young man ahead of Oliver. "Up to the third floor with you."

"Thank you," the young man murmured as he moved away.

"How can I help you sir?" The receptionist asked as he turned his gaze on Oliver.

"Oliver Wood," Oliver told him. "I'm here to visit Percy Weasley."

The receptionist checked his sheet, "Yes, it would be Wednesday wouldn't it. I'm sure you know the way Mr. Wood."

"I do," Oliver accepted his visitor tag. "Have a good day."

The receptionist smiled briefly before motioning the next wizard in line forward.

* * *

Percy looked much the same as always. The red headed middle son of the Weasley clan was staring solidly at the wall of the ward.

"Percy?" Oliver called out softly. "It's Oliver."

There was no movement or acknowledgment from the former head boy.

"I brought you a book," Oliver waved the book around briefly before placing it on the table next to the book that he'd brought last week. The two books were switched every week, but Percy had never noticed.

Oliver ran his fingers through his hair, and sat down on Percy's bed. "It's almost May, do you know what that means?" Oliver paused though he knew Percy wouldn't respond. "It means that you're going to have your birthday soon!" Inwardly Oliver winced. He was talking to Percy in the same way he talked to his Godsons.

There was a bustle at the other end of the ward and those selfsame Godsons appeared dragging their grandfather behind them. Both boys had the Weasley red hair, though their identical faces were a mixture of their parents. Oliver often thought that he could see more than a little of Penelope in them.

"Arthur," Oliver stood to greet the man.

"Oliver," Arthur Weasley gave him a tired smile.

"Ollie!" One of the twins grabbed onto Oliver's hand. The second twin refused to be out done and he grabbed onto Oliver's other hand in a hold that nearly had Oliver wincing in pain.

"Are you two here to visit your papa?" Oliver bent down to their eye level.

The two boys nodded. "Aunt 'Moine too."

Oliver threw a quick look up at Arthur who gave him a nod.

"Go say hi to your papa," Oliver detached his hands from theirs and moved closer to Arthur. "Hermione now too?"

"Yes," Arthur shrugged. "It's the curse."

Oliver lay a hand on the other man's shoulder, "If there is anything I can do. If you need me to watch the kids, just firecall me."

Arthur gave him a wry grin. "Not even you can watch _all_ the kids."

"I can help though," Oliver shrugged.

"I'll firecall," Arthur promised.

Oliver nodded, and looked over to where the twins were crawling all over Percy. "How far along is Hermione?"

"Not too far," Arthur murmured back. "But they're afraid of what might happen. Especially since she was heading up the research into the curse."

Oliver closed his eyes. "How is Ron taking this?"

"Worried," Arthur snorted. "And who can blame him? He has seen his sister-in-laws and his sister die from this curse. Now his wife has fallen as well."

Oliver said nothing as he watched the twins. They were beginning to tire of their father's unresponsiveness, it would take only a few more minutes before they became upset.

"Would you like to spend some time with Percy?" Oliver asked Arthur. "I'll take the twins up to the fourth floor."

"Would you?" Arthur sounded relieved. "Molly is up there too."

Oliver gave Arthur a reassuring smile. "Joshua, Albert, I think it's time to visit Aunt Hermione."

The two boys immediately abandoned their father to take their Godfather's hands again.

"Good bye Percy," Oliver called over his shoulder. "I'll be back next week."

* * *

The Fourth Floor of St. Mungo's was devoted to Spell Damage, as this included curses the floor was filled to capacity and St. Mungo's was looking to expand itself. Two years ago they had started converting the building next to theirs into another wing for the Hospital, but they were already predicting that the fallout from Voldemort's curse would fill it up as soon as it opened.

'_In a way I hope it is full,' _Oliver thought as he lead the twins through the door. _'If it isn't full that would mean that we've lost too many to the curse.'_

Oliver stopped at the floor's nurses station to find out where Hermione was, he then gripped the twins hands harder as they moved past the wards with anxious wizards standing over beds with witches in them.

Joshua moved closer to Oliver as they passed a witch nearing the final stages of the curse. Her skin hung limply off her bones only to balloon out moments later. A cough took nearly all her breath away, and Oliver noted that there was blood at the corners of her mouth.

Albert dropped Oliver's hand and clung to his leg as they passed a man crying by the bedside of a woman who just passed on. The cruel twist of the curse was that on death the witch looked just as she had prior to falling victim.

Finally they passed out of the worst cases and into the wards with the newer cases. Albert finally unclenched himself from Oliver's leg and ran to a clump of red heads. "Albert?" Molly Weasley said uncertainly. "Where is your grandfather?"

"Arthur stayed with Percy," Oliver explained as he and Joshua joined them. "I believe that the boys were tiring him out."

"They're a handful all right," a weak voice from the bed agreed.

"Hush," one of the wizards said. "Conserve your breath."

"Breath has nothing to do with this curse Ron," The weak voice said patiently. "If it did would I be talking to you right now?"

"She sounds good," Oliver commented to the group at large.

"Just how many wives have _you _lost to the curse Wood?" Ron Weasley rounded on him.

"Ron," Harry Potter, who Oliver had overlooked amongst the Weasleys, lay a hand on his best friend's arm. "Oliver meant no harm."

Ron looked like he wanted to argue but a movement from his wife brought all of his attention back to her.

"She does sound better than the other's have," Harry agreed once Ron's attention was taken.

"It's the treatments she devised," Molly said proudly.

"So is there any hope for a cure?" Oliver raised an eyebrow. "Is there a small chance that we might finally break the curse?"

"I'm afraid not," Bill said quietly from the other side of the bed. "It's unlikely that the new treatments will do anything but prolong life. We still haven't been able to identify the curse, much less make any headway on a counter."

Oliver closed his eyes, it was still incomprehensible. How could anyone, even a mad man, wish this life upon Wizardkind?

"Wood," Charlie caught his attention. "What are you doing here if you don't have someone in these wards."

"I visit Percy every week," Oliver shrugged. "There doesn't seem to be anything else I can do."

Charlie nodded in understanding, "It's horrible the way our hands are tied."

"If only we could perform experiments," Bill agreed. "But who wants to experiment on their mother, sister, wife, or daughter?"

"Which is why you should all leave this up to me and my team." Hermione broke in. "I have no problem experimenting on myself. Though I do have to say that it's a shame the top female curse breakers were among the first to fall."

"Who could predict they would all get pregnant together?" George said from where he was entertaining one of his nephews.

"By the by," Fred perked up from next to George. "I thought you two were planning on waiting until a counter curse had been found to start a family."

"We were," Ron muttered.

Hermione rolled her eyes, "I was hardly going to be able to research if I didn't experience it myself."

"You won't be doing anyone any good if you are dead!" Ron shouted at her.

"Mr. Weasley!" One of the nurses rushed over. "This is the third time this morning! I'm afraid we're going to have to ask you to leave."

Ron's face darkened but quickly faded as Hermione touched his arm. "Okay," he leaned down to kiss her. "I'll be back later."

Oliver hung back as the large Weasley clan filed out of the ward in a cloud of noise. He gave Hermione a brief smile before making his way back to the Lobby. He always felt useless after a trip to St. Mungo's. He'd never particularly excelled in any one type of classes at Hogwarts. He had been a decent Quidditch player but thanks to the war and the curse there weren't enough people to fill the stands, much less make the team rosters.

He'd been looking for a job ever since the league had disbanded a year ago, but all the jobs required more experience than he had. The largest need these days was for child care providers. Oliver knew he was good with children, but fathers weren't that desperate yet.

"Why isn't she being attended too!" A voice came out of one of the wards. "We are the richest people here! She should be in her own room!"

"Vincent!" A second voice attempted to calm the first down.

Oliver was pushed to one side as two men, one dragging the other, ran out of the ward. The smaller of the two, a blond that looked vaguely familiar, slammed the larger wizard against the wall.

"What in Merlin's name is running through your mind." The blond snarled.

"Draco…" The larger man whined. Oliver's eyes widened in surprise at learning who the smaller wizard was.

"But nothing!" Oliver sized Draco up. The blond still maintained his slender build. If going by appearances along there should have been no way he could have slammed the larger wizard anywhere. "You can't act like this here. Everyone here is suffering just like you."

Vincent's face fell. "She's pure," he croaked out. "I'm pure. Why did she get the curse?"

"Voldemort was not a genius. He was in fact quite mad." Draco sighed. "When he cast the curse he didn't think that he'd be cursing all witches. He wasn't that rational."

"How can you say that about our Lord?" Vincent looked scandalized.

"Our Lord?" Draco had a touch of incredulousness in his voice. "Your wife is dying because of 'our Lord'. We've watched friends and family suffer because of that _mans_ stupidity." Draco took a breath. "Our fathers signed up to help purify the bloodlines. They expected up to sign up too, only by that time all 'our Lord' wanted was to wipe the magical world off the face of the planet!" Draco let go of Vincent and stormed toward the stairs.

Oliver glanced around and saw that he wasn't the only one who'd stopped to see the scene play out. Vincent stared after his friend for a moment before shaking himself. He glared at the watchers before stalking back to his wife.

Oliver noticed that there was a small book lying on the ground, the initials DLM were engraved into the leather binding. Oliver pocketed the book absently and walked down the stairs. He had every intention of leaving the book at the lobby desk.

* * *

End Notes:  
- Please Review. 


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